Marvel Announces New 'Rocket Raccoon' Series

Courtesy of Skottie Young/Marvel Entertainment

Skottie Young will write and illustrate the new comic book series, debuting a month before "Guardians of the Galaxy" is released in theaters.

Just how convinced is Marvel that Guardians of the Galaxy is going to be a hit and Rocket Raccoon the breakout character of the season? Convinced enough to announce a brand-new Rocket Raccoon solo comic book, premiering before the movie has even been released.

The series will be written and drawn by Skottie Young, perhaps best known to comic book fans as the man behind the A-Babies vs. X-Babies trend of transforming familiar faces into children for variant covers on Marvel titles over the last few years. And he promises that the new series will be similarly cartoonish and kid-friendly.

"I think it's going to have a connection to that nostalgic feeling for Looney Tunes -- that old animated flavor, where everything wasn't squeaky clean, you know?" Young told MTV. "That's what I grew up watching. And being able to play around with that in this hyper-superhero intergalactic universe will be a lot of fun."

The new series won't immediately be closely tied to the ongoing Guardians of the Galaxy series, according to Young: "I'm sure as we get closer to the movie, or if there are some bigger events going down, Brian [Michael Bendis, Guardians writer] will give me a buzz, and we'll figure some stuff out there."

Rocket Raccoon launches in July. Guardians of the Galaxy will hit theaters August 1.